Re: The Thread Where You Name an Artist and Someone Else Recommends an Album

Re: The Thread Where You Name an Artist and Someone Else Recommends an Album

The Smiths-The Queen is Dead

It's the most cohestive Smiths album, despite not having their biggest hits. It flows really well and gives you a good idea of the breadth of their music. Also, it's got some of Moz's least cringe-worthy lyrics.

Sonic Youth-Sister

Daydream Nation is their best album, but it's not the best place to start because it's so dense and long and consuming. Sister is probably a better way to go because it shows the freeness and weird sort of atonal-yet-melodic stuff that they are so incredible at. It was the precursor to Daydream, yet it stands up as a true classic in its own right.

Pavement-Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Slanted and Enchanted is better, but CR,CR is more accessible, more fully made and more clean. The songs on here are all classic, and they're not quite as fuzz-bombed as Slanted, which can be off-putting to new ears.

Stereolab-Emperor Tomato Ketchup

I'd call it the quintessential Stereolab album. It covers most of the huge range of sounds that they played with, and it also has some of their absolute best songs, including Metronome Underground, which is my favorite thing they've done. If you don't like this, you won't like Stereolab

Spacemen 3-The Perfect Prescription

They have two classics, but The Perfect Prescription is the better one to start with. They're working as a band here, and they do so in a great manner. Again, it has some of their best work, but this one is really notable for being the best place to hear two geniuses working together on some truly spectacular psychedelic music.

Asobi Seksu-Citrus

They seem like the outlier on your list in that they're the only band who isn't great. Citrus isn't a great album, but it's their best. They do cool, shoegazey stuff and this is the one that stands up best from front to back.

Tool-AEnima

I think it's the perfect midpoint between their dark and eerie stuff and more hard rocking material. The transitions are cool, they have a really ominous and creepy mood that they keep up through the whole album, and the album art is pretty fantastic. If you like the less hard-rock songs, move forward in their catalog, and if you prefer the rockers, go back to Undertow.

Re: The Thread Where You Name an Artist and Someone Else Recommends an Album

My gateway to Bjork was Post. It strikes a nice balance between her more experimental tendencies and her straightforward stuff.

Arctic Monkeys = Whatever People Say I Am...
Their first, and still their best. The subsequent albums are really good too.

The Black Keys = Thickfreakness
Still my favorite Black Keys. Also my gateway into them back in 03 or 04 or whenever it came out. They have gotten much more proficient in the studio, and much more poppy as songwriters, but if you don't like this you won't like the rest of it. So many killer jams on here.

Re: The Thread Where You Name an Artist and Someone Else Recommends an Album

Pulp - Different Class is the most accessible album and it's pretty much perfect. But some of their most exciting stuff is that which alienates, so keep an open mind when listening to Different Class and especially when pursuing their other works.
Asobi Seksu - Citrus, because it's a middle point between their shoegazetastic debut and their softer, dreamier third album. Impeccable pop sensibilities and walls of sounds both devastating and beautiful; it offers the best of both worlds in terms of shoegaze/dream pop and infectious pop.

thick, rubber, a&r, and magic are all GENIUS records and really are the "black keys sound." don't get me wrong i love brothers, but its not really a duo album unlike all their previous stuff. a&r has a lot of non duo stuff on it but not to the extent that brothers does.

Re: The Thread Where You Name an Artist and Someone Else Recommends an Album

The Replacements - Let it Be

They were more shambolic and loose before this album, after this one they got almost too professional and skillful sounding. Let it Be is their best work, and one of the best albums around. It's just a spectacular glimpse of a band at the top of their game.

Beck - Odelay

Might not be fair considering you'll recognize most of the songs on here, but it's Beck's most cohesive statement. He's got the psychedelic sample blending, the seemingly effortless genre-hopping, insanely catchy hooks, cool little clips and phrases of pop culture that pop up throughout, two turntables and a microphone. He has other fantastic albums, but many of them focus on one aspect of his work, whereas Odelay covers most of the spectrum in a spectacular way.

The Kinks - Are the Village Green Preservation Society

I really wanted to suggest something else that would have some of their early, well known singles, but really this is the Kinks album that you have to hear. The lyrics are strong, yearning for a simpler life while at the same time acknowledging the inevitable force of change. There aren't any hits off of this, but every song is great and catchy and memorable, and somehow they are made even better when listened to as a whole. I love listening to this album during Fall/Winter months, as it perfectly captures the sad nostalgia that those seasons inspire in me.

Re: The Thread Where You Name an Artist and Someone Else Recommends an Album

I actually have a hard time getting through Village Green Preservation Society for some reason. Something Else was the one that really got me into the Kinks. Every single song is great and there's a diversity to the tracks that doesn't undercut the album's overall cohesiveness.

Moon Pix is probably the standard Cat Power intro record. It's pretty subdued and melancholy, more so than her later stuff, but the songwriting is ace throughout. "No Sense" gets me every time. The Covers Record might be a good alternate introduction since you'll be familiar with a lot of the songs but she really makes them her own.